


GHOSTING YOU [wilbur soot]

by spritesfury



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, Gen, Ghost Wilbur Soot, Ghost Wilbur Soot-Centric, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Inspired by Ghosting by Mother Mother, Not Canon Compliant, Platonic Relationships, Sleepy Bois Inc as Family, Wilbur Soot-centric, cuz like...... main character is dead idk, i feel that one is important, idk we all know wilbur dead rn but ill still tag major char death, it is meant to be sorta optimistic tho, no beta just me skimming it a few times, pls heed this last tag okay, read notes pls guys i am begging you do not hurt yourself
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-10
Updated: 2021-02-10
Packaged: 2021-03-16 00:34:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,091
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29323278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spritesfury/pseuds/spritesfury
Summary: the three ways sbi react to the events before, during, and after wilbur's third death versus how wilbur reacts.inspired by "ghosting" by mother mother.very platonic.teen for a tad of swearing, themes around death, lightly brushed mention of suicide. please stay safe and do not read if there is a possibility these things might set you off.
Relationships: Wilbur Soot & Phil Watson, Wilbur Soot & Technoblade, Wilbur Soot & Technoblade & TommyInnit & Phil Watson, Wilbur Soot & TommyInnit
Comments: 1
Kudos: 30





	GHOSTING YOU [wilbur soot]

**Author's Note:**

> hello. i write often but rarely post, this one simply holds too good of a message to keep to myself so im posting it for others to think too deep about. :v
> 
> platonic (: tubbo n ranboo n schlatt n quackity n sam get their names said like once. thats it. fundy gets a lil more
> 
> i say fuck canon. i do what i please.
> 
> if nothing has led you to this conclusion, wilbur is very dead. unsure if i should have tagged that so i did since he is the main character and he technically dies during this
> 
> WARNING. it isn't graphic to me but i know people see graphic as v different things. someone also does mention a successful suicide, so be warned, be safe, don't read if death and grief over loved ones and Bad Thoughts (like suicide) might set you off. just in case! 
> 
> please stay safe, and hope you enjoy (:

**when you're tossing, when you turn in your sleep**

**(it's because i'm ghosting your dreams)**

tommy lives a traitor and sleeps a traitor.

by the time he is fifteen or sixteen, he is hated by a country he has dropped nearly everything for and dreams of a brother he could not save.

when he dreams, he can not move. a shadow settles over his closed eyelids and he shivers. there is a hand on his face wiping away lines of frustrated tears, and it is almost loving, the way the cold skin touches his hot cheeks. the figure is silent, calm, and tommy's mind races, terrified.

the figure retreats, their feet hitting the wood of tommy's floor softly. it is the pace of a dancer or gymnast; a normal, familiar sound, though it is unlike technoblade's harsh thumping or phil's tired taps. he still can't open his eyes, and it is driving him insane. 

is this a dream? it feels like one.  
  
a guitar begins to play, or maybe has been going on for a long while. it is a sad tune he doesn't really understand, so he is desperate to remember it. he tries, tries so hard, but his brain lets the notes slip through his thoughts as quickly as he hears them, drains them away like they are as harmful as technoblade's voices. every strum of the guitar is like the climax of a story and it is a euphoric feeling he hasn't allowed himself to experience for a few months now.

he has a tad of guilt for allowing himself to enjoy the noise. even so, tommy has always liked music. 

he tries to speak, acknowledge the person lurking somewhere in his room. his mouth is dry and his throat aches like he has been screaming with tubbo all day, tumbling through l'manburg or the snow outside for hours. maybe he has; he can't remember anything before this, actually. he really must be dreaming. would that even affect the way he dreams?

the person ends the song and tommy understands that they had started singing halfway through the notes but the voice is already fading from his mind. there is another strum, softer and far away.

it is fading.

he misses it in the way he misses his childhood, when he was carefree and youthful and curious. this music is sorrowful and forgiving and it makes him ache for something he hasn't had in a long, long time.

despite everything, tommy's eyes open.

wilbur sits at the foot of his bed, the golden glow of tommy's nightlight shining on his hair. he's wearing a soft yellow sweater and black pants and a grey beanie but he doesn't look at tommy. his eyes are soft as he watches his fingers strum the instrument. tommy stares a little harder, strains a little more, notices wilbur's chest doesn't move even though his mouth does, notices his skin is going transparent, slowly and distractingly. the bed does not dip under his weight, and tommy is not mean but wilbur and technoblade had always been much bigger than him.

_wilbur!_ he says, or tries to say, feels the tears pricking at the corners of his eyes. 

wilbur does look up at him, but his eyes are going white and his eyebrows are drawing in. he doesn't look angry; he looks hurt and lost, but surprised, mostly. he speaks, low, rushed, confused. he looks as if he would if he was real and alive, like he's asking tommy where he and tubbo got the bruises they had used to come home with. wilbur is barely anything now. tommy wants nothing more but to reach out to him; all he wishes for is the brother he lost too soon.

but wilbur is dead, and tommy hates it. his brother's face is the last to go, portraying nothing but _devastation_. tommy thinks he feels the same, or worse.

and tommy wakes up, because he has never reacted well to nightmares, especially ones that let him cement the sight of his big brother dying, over and over and over again.

if he has to sleep in phil's bed for the rest of the night when he can't get anything but wilbur's name out of his youngest's mouth, technoblade does not acknowledge it when he wakes up the next morning.

**and this is why i have decided to leave your house and home un-haunted**

**(you don't need poltergeists for sidekicks)**

technoblade, unfortunately, is too used to feeling like he is losing his mind. 

he can't see him, but he knows wilbur is nearby. the voices scream it, remind him of the twin he wants to forget, but that is not really what makes him believe in the spirit haunting him. he has learned to ignore what they claim, for the most part.

but when he's out in the snow, he can feel the touch of his brother on his heavy, covered shoulders, can hear his chiming laugh floating through the trees and the open field that surrounds the house. he catches glimpses of air that look too wrong but he can never catch wilbur himself. wilbur was always the best at this game, so techno takes in his scent of brother and death and happiness and rot. he lets him lurk. 

technoblade doesn't like to believe it is real, because it is simply his mind playing tricks on him.

it is not as if he wants to acknowledge the fact that he wishes it was him instead of wilbur. his voices agree, most of the time, scold him and tell him of all the lives he holds over wilbur's head, phil's, even tommy's-

the snow crunches under his boots, and he ignores the ghosting footsteps he can hear coming after him. it's normal now, to hear wilbur's contentness following him like a shadow. he deserves each and every emotion the sound, the scent, the idea of his brother brings him.

it is a feeling he keeps for the following few weeks, like the unsettling realization prey gets when they are being stalked. except the stalking does not end and wilbur always likes playing with his food. the fake-wilbur gains a voice, eventually, and it sounds too cheerful to be the war-driven man technoblade had known wilbur to be just before his death, too delightful and more alive than the man had ever been.

the scent stays the same, and no matter who he asks they all claim there is nothing. not even wilbur's own son can smell it, though fundy doesn't look at technoblade with pity or judgment and truly does try to humor him. he might be more disappointed than technoblade when he can not find a trace of his father in the damp air. 

technoblade pretends to understand, but fundy isn't a kid anymore and their relationship is unsteady. he regrets it because fundy is all they have left of wilbur and he can feel the pain radiating from his shadow every time they interact.

it is not his problem; technoblade is not, and never will be, a family man.

(he loves phil like someone who looks up to a mentor. technoblade had been taken in much too late and was simply unable to mold to phil the way wilbur had. tommy was more of a nuisance, but he was like a cute animal and technoblade found it cruel to push his shining eyes away. and ranboo had no one and phil liked him, though he liked fundy too. technoblade must have something against his nephew, then, if he was to be honest with himself. maybe he brought back the pain of wilbur too fast.)

the presence of fake-wilbur clings to technoblade for too long and he has to leave tommy and a confused ranboo for a few days under phil's care while he blows off some steam. the voices demand blood and death and violence, while wilbur, ever the opposite, demands nurturing and care and love. 

he does not feel comfortable acknowledging a voice he created out of trauma, much less the one of his twin brother. so, he murmurs under his breath and hopes fake-wilbur stays behind, but it is evident even after his seventh or eighth kill that the man is still there. he stays the entire time techno is away, and perhaps that is what throws technoblade off the deep end.

(wilbur isn't stupid; maybe he is a ghost and he is sad and he wants nothing more than to cling to the only family that can acknowledge him, but he is not the type of person to push someone to suicide. he knows technoblade loves him, now, as a fly may love a flytrap, and that is not the way wilbur wants his brother to die. he tries to stop it, but it does not work.)

when technoblade comes back, he doesn't tell anyone of his adventure. tommy and ranboo and phil are too happy to have him back, and wilbur (fake, imaginary, _dead_ ) is too gone. he feels empty again, and while it feels so much better, like a anvil has been lifted off his shoulders, it is uncomfortable. the voices rage like an angry sea under a dangerous storm, and he lets them because he deserves it.

he is guilty, still, but now it is for a different reason. how fucked does a man have to be to let his brother fall away twice?

(the voices assure him he is in the wrong, and it lets him move on, in an ugly way. he is not just one brother shorter; the guilt takes away one life, too, even though wilbur had tried to stop it. technoblade deserves it, honestly)

**i will be kind and i'll be sweet**

**(if you stop staring straight through me)**

phil is a father before he is a murderer.

when he was young man, not too much grown out of his teenage years himself, the boys had found him; wilbur and techno spoke little other than the language of the nether and they acted liked starved dogs, looking for human pity while still scattering when phil dared get too close.

they had experienced a pain phil then didn't understand, because years of his own had blocked out the very suggestion that anyone else could have it off worse.

wilbur had warmed up quickly because he was easy to love and he mirrored the same attention he gained back. techno was less willing, a tad more broken, but wilbur meant something to him. they had a sort of shared life before they had stumbled into the overworld, one that phil didn't know about. one he would never learn, despite the trust he builds with them.

tommy comes later, scraped and bruised and biologically related to phil, through some cousin's daughter. he doesn't display unnatural, nor hybrid, is anything but, but his mother claims he is evil. she threatens to leave him somewhere in an attempt to get rid of him, and phil caves in because he knows what it means to be different and how it feels to grow up unloved and lonely.

he has never taken care of a boy as young as tommy before, but wilbur and techno have; they had to keep each other alive before they had phil. phil learns how to be a proper dad from them and other friends who offer help him with the three.

and, really, phil likes order and government and society until it makes him kill his son.

"i'm sorry," phil will whisper, later, making his best effort not to cry. the sword slides out of wilbur's chest so easily and phil's beautiful wings are quite literally on fire from the explosion, but all he can think about is the little boy he first knew, scrawny and frantic. wilbur looks so peaceful, and phil's breathing is ragged as the panic sets in and he hugs the dying boy to his chest.

"fuck, don't leave me. you don't deserve this, will. will, don't die. you don't deserve to die."

and for hours after he will repeat, "i love you," deep into the heavy night, even after sam and schlatt and quackity try to pull him away from his second son, a soul he had tried too hard to save. "i loved you too much."

so maybe phil believes wilbur is around, even after fundy comes to him and tells him of techno's problem and cries into his shoulder over a dad he lost for the wrong reasons. he tells phil over and over again that wilbur is gone, that he is not coming back, and phil thinks that maybe, just maybe, fundy is really trying to convince himself and not phil.

(and wilbur does stand there, fists clenched, an odd blotch of his memory carved out. he feels love for phil and techno and tommy and fundy, but he doesn't really know why. he understands they are family, and that families love each other, but he thinks (selfishly) that this love might be too much. he tries to catch phil's gaze and tries to latch onto his only son, but his limbs go through them. phil's gaze is dead even though he holds fundy with a thousand emotions rocketing through his brain.)

and so phil sits and talks to the wind, though wilbur quickly finds out that he can not talk back. he listens to phil like a caretaker who may watch their patient fall insane, always there but never quite enough. 

phil likes to talk about his adventures before the three of them, stories wilbur himself has heard tens of hundreds of times. it doesn't matter how many times he has heard them, because soon phil has ranboo to recount them to.

phil talks like talking takes the pain away, and maybe it does. it lets him keep busy and it lets him not dwell too much over the crime he has committed. he doesn't ever find an indication that wilbur is listening, even when his son masters the way he must hold himself to make it feel like he is really hugging the only parent he has ever known.

**Hey, would it be so bad if I stayed**

**(I'm just a ghost out of his grave)**

wilbur grows and falls under the guidance of the same man.

for a very long time, he only knows fire and angry piglin barks and technoblade. 

he is not much of a pig, like techno, though he knows in his gut that they are brothers. he knows they had the same mother, knows they are but several minutes apart. he knows he is different, and he knows techno is, too, just in a different way.

he warms up to phil because phil doesn't chase him around with a golden sword or use him as target practice or try to push him into lava for fun. 

phil is easy to get used to, because he tells the sort of stories that would earn him high ranks in the pack wilbur and techno come from. he is brave, and strong, and happy, and wilbur is lucky to be his son even though he doesn't quite understand why a man would give up such glory for two lost kids.

he likes tommy because he is also broken and wilbur wants to keep the boy safe and out of the situation he came from. 

he does not quite know where everything went wrong or when everything plummetted. 

he doesn't regret some things; he comes to terms with his loss of sally and cherishes the boy she leaves behind. he is hard to raise and puffy is a natural choice when she offers, because wilbur has no experience and no mother and no knowledge of newborns. he doesn't regret making a family with phil and tommy and techno.

he regrets putting up the walls, if only because it hurts to see his precious son so ready to get rid of what he put up only to protect him. when fundy helps tear them down, wilbur finally steps back. 

wilbur presses the button, mostly, because he is scared and selfish and still a young boy.

when he begs phil to kill him, it is out of panic and guilt. he sees the loss on the people he used to consider friends and as family, even, and decides he is in the wrong, decides he can't face them again.

for the end of his last life, he wishes phil to take it.

phil disagrees too harshly. he raised wilbur from a child and he can not bear to take his own son out of the world for such a thing as this, because anything wilbur did would give phil reason to defend him.

wilbur is relieved when the sword slices through his skin. his hands and mind are hardened by war and anger, but it is only a shell to protect the soft man he had been raised to become. he is relieved because it feels good to die, feels good to have phil pick him up and hold him close as if he was a child again. 

he does not worry about where he will go, because he knows it will involve a terrible punishment to meet the destruction he has been the cause of. 

to see his family and not be able to love them is perhaps the worst retribution of all. 

he haunts tommy's dreams like a demon and it hurts because tommy is *scared* of him.

he follows technoblade like a shadow and it hurts because technoblade *hates* the idea of him.

he listens to phil like a curious child and it hurts because phil believes *he* is the reason wilbur is dead.

when the universe believes he has lived this penalty long enough, he might be pulled away and quietly moved on to a more peaceful afterlife. perhaps he will even see his family one more time before he must go. 

until then, he tries to be the best he can. he sits by phil and lets the man entertain the empty air with his crazy stories, lets technoblade believe he is not really there, plays a song for tommy whenever he appears in the boy's dreams. 

it will be little things like this that help heal him and his family, though they will be rough and painful. a ghost like wilbur can not change fate; he can only play into her hands the way she intended the game to go.

**Author's Note:**

> anyway. 
> 
> i wanted to add ranboo bc i love him but i think this is alright for now. i decided not to split it into four chapters bc each character's reaction/story is only like 500-700 words each. fundy was also an option but alas. i am done writing.
> 
> when techno says he "is not just one brother shorter" it does mean wilbur, but you can read it as he lost tommy as well if u want it to be more canon-compliant, since each section can be read as in different time periods with very vague overlaps (that an easily be disregarded)
> 
> i hope it was okay lol.
> 
> this will NOT be cross-posted, so don't do anything of the sort! (reposting, editing, claiming, translating, the etc)


End file.
